My Job
by Edengwen
Summary: Lipton's job was to protect his men and when his new commanding officer wouldn't he would. Lipton's thoughts in episode "The Breaking Point." Rewrite completed 14/09/18


**My Job**

This war was hell. It was like they had fallen into hell itself. And after everything he had seen he knew that that wasn't true. This was worse than hell.

Lip waited till the world around him was silent before slowly lifting his head from the mud that surrounded the edge of his foxhole. Well the first foxhole he could get too. His only hope was that the german attack had ended for now so they could treat their wounded and get them to safety behind the line. Also he needed to let himself think without the sounds of the shells from the german artillery exploding above them.

However the silence did not give any peace to him nor to his men. It was terrifying. The silence was just a pause, like time itself had stopped. However for Lipton the silence that filled the air brought back all the memories of all those who he had lost since the war had started. And now that fear grow ever strong. What had happened to his men? To his friends?

What if more of his friends had all been killed from the exploding shells and the shrapnel from exploding trees? As it wasn't just the shrapnel from the shells was not the only thing they needed to worry about. As the shells exploded in the trees, the bark from the trees became shrapnel. And sometimes getting hit by bark was worse and caused more damage than the shrapnel coming from the metal shells.

With every loss they surrender hit very close to home. These men had become his family. And seeing those men blown apart and broken by the war they were fighting was slowly breaking him. He might not be their CO, however he had been there for his men from the beginning. He was their sergeant, and it was his job to do everything he possibly could to make sure they got out of this war alive.

But that task ultimately fell in their company's commanding officer hands. And sadly that was at the moment was Dike. However at the moment he had no idea where Dike was. When the attack hit them, he had no idea where Dike was, which had become a common trend with their new CO. He would often walk away from his men into the woods without a word to anyone or informing them to where he was going.

At the beginning, most of the men didn't care much as they didn't really care for the man. However other time it had started to annoyed the men, they didn't like nor trust the man who was meant to lead them. Dike was never one of the men of their company and it was clear that the men did not treat him like he was. He had tried to make things easier for Dike by telling the men that maybe their CO didn't know where he stood with his new company who had been together ever since they had jumped into France. But nothing changed and now it seemed that it was now his job to watch over his men.

Even Buck seem to turn to him for his opinion when it came to their movements and position as Dike never seemed to be around like any good commanding officer would be. And Lipton could tell that even Buck didn't have any respect for the man only for his rank.

However he was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of someone move close to him from and to the left. There was no chance it would be a german as he knew that no one had broke through their line. Slowly lifting his head from the mud he looked at the scene in front of him. What he saw was that in the snow, laid ground was a mixture of dirty and broken trees.

He knew that whoever was moving around was close and to his left. Looking around towards that direction of the sound to see another soldier deep in his foxhole, he could see a helmet move against the dirt.

Soon the silence that once filled the air started to break when other voices from the front line started to travel through the forest. However soon Lip recognized the voices that called out, some belonged to his closest friends and some to his junior soldiers. But then he heard the voices of the other senior soldiers and sergeants. All shouting orders to the other soldiers to keep down until the all clear was called.

"Lip?" At the sound of name caused Lip to look in the direction of the voice. He knew that voice all too well. It was Luz. Lipton took in a long breath; he was thankful that one of his friends was still alive, even if he sometimes drove him scary. He lifted his head more out of the foxhole to look at his friend who had lifted himself out of his foxhole a little to see his friend more clearly.

"You ok?" Lip called seeing Luz's face. He looked ok, however he could only see the man's helmet which was still intact and the mud that caked his face. He knew that he looked similar to him, they all were covered in mud and the tiredness was clear on each of their faces. However unlike his own foxhole which had survived the bombing Luz's hadn't been lucky. Broken and fallen trees lay directly across his foxhole, creating a blacket of wood. Which for those who hadn't been in combat like this would think that when that happened it gave a little bit more protection which was true however it also caused more soldiers to be injured by ever the trees fallen, the shrapnel or even the bark itself splitting in the air and raining down on them. But it looked like Luz had gotten off lucky.

Luz didn't sound a word to his friend, instead he held up his thumb giving him a thumbs up. Silently telling his friend that he might be physically fine but mentally that was another matter. But that was the same for most of the men. None of them were going to be ok after this war. They had seen too much and had done too much. They all had been changed in this damn war. They had lost too many friends and family, and they knew that they would never be able to get over what they had seen. Going back to normal wasn't an opinion.

Seconds after Luz's thumbs up, Lipton saw other soldiers movements as they attempted to exit their foxholes. Many, he knew, would be wanting to go and see if any if their close friends had been hit during the attack.

However many would think that the attack was over, that the germans had stopped of the night but he couldn't be sure. Not yet. The worrying thought that the germans were just reloading their weapons ready for another attack.

"Stay Down!" Lipton shouted, they did not want to lose anymore soldiers. He didn't want to lose any of them when they thought they were safe. If you can call the frontline safe.

In the corner of his eyes he saw someone in a foxhole to his right move more. "You Stay Down!" Lipton yelled again and saw the soldier drop back down into his foxhole. He needed his men to stay down until he could check that everything was safe. He would risk his life if it meant that more of his men got home.

Then he heard moment coming from behind him. The fear suddenly hit him, what if the germans had been able to break through their line. However he knew that that was impossible. He would have known if that had happened and they wouldn't be making that much noise.

He hoped that it was someone coming to tell them that they were to move back to safety when another company took over. They needed a break however the voice made his heart drop.

"1st Sergeant Lipton…" At his name he quickly turned to see Lieutenant Dike crawling on the ground looking at him.

Their Lieutenant had no helmet or weapon. No equipment. The man looked like he had no idea what to do. And the fear was clearly writing all over his face as he looked at him. Was the man mad? Lipton thought. For a soldier to move within a battlefield with nothing to protect him with or weapon to defend himself could only mean that the man wasn't made out for frontline work.

Dike was panting to catch his breath as he looked at him. "...You get things organized here…." Dike said catching his breath which he was failing at.

At Dike's words, Lip was confused. He was not easy company CO. He was meant to be giving orders to the soldier that came from their CO. Not the other way around. That job should be Dikes, their CO.

However that wasn't true anymore. He knew that if he wanted to keep his friends to live, he needed to do Dike's job for him. And with Dike showing them all that he was not a leader. A good leader wouldn't leave his men when they needed him the most and more so when they had just taken heavy fire from the enemy.

"I'm gonna go for help." Dike added looking at the Lip, before turning back and running back keeping his body low to the safety of command deeper into the woods.

Lip couldn't believe what he had just witnessed, his commanding officer had run from his men when they needed a commander to look up to when they needed guidance. It had become a running theme with Dike, he would turn away from his men and the frontline for the safety that was behind them. Like normal.

And he wasn't the only one.

Luz had heard and seen the conversation between Lipton and Dike. Lipton was a very close friend to Luz. And hearing someone suddenly appear on his friend he watched carefully. And he couldn't believe watch he was seeing.

They only respected Dike because Lip told them too. As Lipton was the man he trusted with his life, and the lives of his friends. He never trusted Dike and after today he would never trust him.

"What the fuck?!" Luz whispered and looked at the place where Dike had disappeared.

Lipton knew now that he had been right about the man. Dike was not a leader of the men. He was an empty uniform. Now it was his job to keep his men alive. And he wasn't going to fail them like Dike was. He would die trying if he had too. Because they weren't just his men but his friends.


End file.
